IOR/R/15/2/1373

The file comprises correspondence and other papers relating to incidents involving local cargo vessels, frequently referred to as country craft, travelling through the Persian Gulf, usually between ports in Iraq, Iran and India. The incidents referred to include the sinking and running aground of vessels during bad weather (and the subsequent repatriation of crews), the failure of vessels to arrive in ports, and the seizure of cargo. The file’s principal correspondents are the Political Agent at Bahrain and the Political Officer on the Trucial Coast.

The most significant incidents referred to in the file (those constituting the most paperwork) are:

• an incident occurring in December 1945 in which the cargo vessel Paris ran aground near the RAF aerodrome at Jīwani near Gwādar, and subsequently had its cargo confiscated. Correspondence covers the incident, statements from the vessel’s nakhuda (Jasim bin Rashid bin Hamadeh) and owner (Haji Ali bin Moosa Al Omran), and the pursuit of a case by the vessel’s owner through the Court of Kalat State (ff 12-37, ff 44-52, f 55, f 58, ff 66-70, ff 76-80);
• an incident occurring in July 1946 concerning the disappearance of the Samahan, a vessel carrying rice from Karachi to Marmagao, which was believed to have landed in a Persian Gulf port. The correspondence concerns efforts to trace the whereabouts of the vessels, its cargo and tindal (or native officer) (ff 59-61, f 65, ff 72-75, ff 84-93);
• incidents occurring in 1950 in which Iranian customs officials boarded vessels belonging to the Trucial Coast, and confiscated their cargo. The correspondence chiefly concerns the payment of compensation by the Iranian authorities to claimants from the Trucial Coast, via the British authorities at Tehran and Bahrain (ff 113-142, ff 145-154).